Tree of Haints
by HoookahBird
Summary: Deep in the forest, there lies a place of twisted wonder. It is the hateful wonderland where those looking for an escape can go, though none come back. It goes by the name of the Tree of Haints ... /trigger warning, gore, horror, etc.


**Tree of Haints**

* * *

A small group watched as a grey sheet of paper fluttered off a tree and into in the wind. The page seemed to fold and unfold itself, contorting until it danced its way to the group's feet.

One of the boys, the taller one with snowy blonde hair, stepped forward, trapping the paper beneath his shoe as to keep it from flying away. He bent down and took the sheet, holding it before his sunglasses and calling back to the others to come check it out.

A girl with long, black locks bounced forward and peered over his shoulder, asking him what it was. She was soon matched by her almost identical brother, both of them wondering what the taller one was holding. The document looked to be an advertisement of some sort, almost like a flyer for a carnival. However, the pictures looked grotesque, with dark colours and gore being the general theme. The final girl to approach mirrored the tall boy in looks, but not in personality. She glanced at the page her brother held, and glanced back to see the tree where the poster was once tacked.

The tree was gone.

_Maybe it's just my imagination_, she whispered to herself, shuddering at the look of the page. The paper was old, and looked like it had been stained and used for other purposes than being a flyer, but the words were crisp and clearly visible. There was no way that paper could have been there for more than a few days at most.

"Rose, you have a thing for languages. What do you think this says?" asked the girl with the black hair, nabbing the page and dashing over to her friend's side. Rose looked up, and found the page in front of her eyes. Her lavender irises scanned the words, but found them in a language she had never seen before; the symbols looked like a mixing of Greek, Latin, and some form of an African tribal writing. She heard a voice in her head whisper three words:

_Tree of Haints._

"I-It says 'Tree of Haints, freak show. One show only, full moon of May. Admittance free with this poster, if you can find us' …" her voice trailed away as the symbols suddenly sprung into meaning, though she knew nothing of the language they were printed in.

The girl jumped back, and squealed in excitement "Ohh! Guys, we just have to go! A real freak show in this town! It'll be so cool!" She clutched the poster to her chest and spun around.

"I don't know, Jade," he brother butted in, "A-Aren't freak shows, I don't know, illegal or something?"

"You guys, this is more of a load of horseshit than all the ponies in my bro's show could produce in a few years. It's all fake anyway, but who wants to skip out on sneaking around in the dead of night, going to some stupid show, and laughing our asses off at a collection of weird gypsies' excuse for entertainment?" The tall boy took the flyer back and rolled his eyes, but behind his sunglasses, no one could tell.

"Dave's right, we should all go," Jade began before Rose cut her off.

"Jade, listen to your brother for once. John is right that freak shows are entirely illegal," and giggled a bit as John fist-pumped in victory. "Besides, from what I saw, the flyer does not provide us with any sort of address, so how would we get there in the first place?"

"And that's where you're wrong, sis, says right here it's in the 'copse behind the theater'."

"That means the woods, right?" Jade mused, and gained a nod from Rose.

"Daaaaaaaave," John whined, "I don't wanna go. It looks real to me."

Jade latched herself onto her brother's arm and giggled out an "Oh John, stop being such an angel and live a little. You'll only be thirteen for so long, ya know!"

"Rose, you'll take my side against not going to this thing, whatever you called it," John struggled against the opinion of his sister and best bro.

"The 'Tree of Haints', John."

"Yeah, what does that even mean anyway?"

"It means something along the lines of a tree of spirits, usually evil ones who rise from their graves to haunt the mortal world and cause suffering to others."

Dave had begun folding the flyer and stopped mid-crease. He turned to Rose, "Why would you know that? If you started reading that grim dark shit-lore again, Rose, we can get you help. We'll start a Grim Dark Anonymous circle, and we'll get you some lithium or something to combat this weird obsession – hey, we'll even enlist Egderp here to make some tee-shirts if that'll cure your strange thing with this cult."

"Dave, I appreciate your concern, but as your sister, I tell you truthfully that I have not read any tales of grim dark in over a year, so there." Rose stuck her tongue out at Dave, very childish and not very effective.

"If you're lying to me, I will search your room. Jade'll film it, like one of those druggie interventions, where they bust in and find weed or ecstasy hidden in the person's underwear drawer."

Rose and Jade sighed, and John just laughed.

"I highly doubt that someone as classy as Rose would ever stoop so low as to hide books in her underwear, Dave."

Jade waved her hands between Rose and Dave as the sparks of ironic fire spat between them. She put on her most serious face and stood so she could face everyone without seeming too short. With a swish of her black hair curtain around her glasses, she asked the final question.

"Well, are we going to go or not?"

Dave coolly raised his hand and opted to go, and was joined by Jade as she popped her hand up to go, giving Dave a high-five in the process.

Rose reluctantly raised her hand and admitted, "I am a bit intrigued about this." She paused before continuing, "I'll go."

"R-Rose!" John spluttered, left being the only one who didn't want to spend a night with the freaks.

Jade patted her brother's shoulder, "I'm sorry, John, but this show may be the only time I get to see real freaks in my life!" She stressed the 'real' as she wanted this show to be as genuine as herself, not some cheap excuse like Dave thought it would be.

John bit his lip and pouted before sighing in exasperation, "Well, if I'm the only one with any common sense left, I hereby swear on my honor and my Con Air poster that I'm not going to this thing. Nuh uh, no way."

* * *

"I can't believe I'm going with you guys."

John's voice was the only one griping about being in the middle of the woods at some ungodly hour, trying to find a most likely made up freak show.

The group's footsteps were quiet and the night was still. With no clouds out, the full moon shone uninhibited into the night, breaking across the teens' faces. The branches of the trees about filtered a bit of moonlight onto the forest floor, but for the most part, the way was dark and thick as tar. Jade shivered; she was partially caught up in the excitement of doing something she wasn't supposed to do, partially in the spirit of going to see a show made of terror. She giggled quietly, and clung to Dave's arm so she wouldn't get lost. Rose could not help but glance around, feeling a bit off–put at the eerie stillness of the woods. The leaves of fall had blown away or rotted, and the ground was not soggy with snowmelt, leaving nothing but the hard-packed soil under the teens' sneakers. The footsteps made surprisingly little noise.

John lagged a slight bit behind the others, periodically being shooshed for being too loud or complaining about something over and over again. He pouted, wondering why he hadn't just said 'no' and stayed at home; now he was stuck heading deeper and deeper into the dark heart of the woods.

He stopped and gulped; was it just him or did he hear something that didn't sound like forest? The noise was something he remembered, a memory from when he was little. Oh yes, his Nanna's way of laughing had always spooked him, making him feel like he was at a circus. That, and the obscene number of harlequins around the house and that perpetual smell of sweets. Anyway, he heard a sort of laughing, or maybe it was honking, and tried to catch up with the rest of the group; being lost and alone in this forest was not a good idea.

Suddenly, a gnarled tree root caught his foot and tripped him up. His glasses left his face for a moment, and he scrabbled in the dirt to find them. Just as his fingers brushed the lenses, a wet droplet landed on his cheek and slid downwards. _Huh, that's funny_, John whispered to himself. _It wasn't supposed to rain tonight, and it hasn't rained before now, so why at this moment does it rain?_ He shrugged and slid the glasses back over his eyes, and at the same time smeared the droplet on his hand and fingers. Pulling the hand away, the sticky smear passed through a small patch of moonlight, and John saw that this was no rain. The droplet had somehow stained his fingers, completely unlike water.

Looking upwards, the tree that the root belonged to loomed over the small boy, and completely hid him in a pitch-black shadow. Carved into the trunk was a fancy, scrolled arrow, pointing to the north and a simple sign hung upon a branch. A small plank of wood dictated that "_You're almost there :o)_". The tree also seemed to be dripping something.

Something very red and very sticky.

John screamed and shot upwards, running in the direction Dave, Rose, and Jade had gone. He almost fell on a few more up reaching roots, and stumbled through the darkness, running blind in the night. Reaching the others, he was chided by Jade, "John! What did we tell you about noise?"

"T-tree, b-b-blood, si-sign, blo-bl-blood!" was all John managed to stutter out. His chest heaved, and he was too scared to turn back to try and show them what he had seen. All three gave him skeptical looks. He blushed with embarrassment at realizing what a huge idiot he looked like. Jade and Rose grabbed his arms and dragged him along with them with quiet shouts of, "c'mon John, it's right up ahead, there's no sense in turning back now."

* * *

The two girls were right; rounding the next curve in the path, the group stumbled to a stop. Ahead of them lay either the strangest sight or the best surprise they could find. A faint light and the sound of laughter filtered out of a brightly coloured big-top tent stretched between three tall, old oak trees. The colours of the tent were garish, a clash of red, green, and teal, but somehow they managed to fit well together and even complemented the purple and indigo pennant flags flying atop the poles. There looked to be shadows moving inside a smaller, blue tent, off to the side that had a sign next to it that read a single word.

_Welcome! :o)_

Jade immediately ran towards the sign and the bluish tent. It was hard to see in the darkness, but the worn canvas of the tent had a faint pattern of swirls, worn to little more than ghosts of the former glory that they might have once held. The others followed Jade, thought at a much slower place, gazing around, taking in the wonder of the tents, the smells of candy and popcorn, and the fading twinkle of lanterns hung in the trees. Upon seeing the lights flickering in the tree-tops, John uneasily whispered to Rose, "It really does, look like trees full of ghosts." Looking upwards under a tree, Dave heard and saw a crow caw once and fly away. He inadvertently shivered, and tightened his grip on Rose's shoulder. Rose glanced back at him; surely if Dave was feeling uneasy about this place it was not a crime for her or John to be terrified of the almost deserted circus grounds. On the other hand, Jade looked to be delighted, dashing between the tents and laughing with wild abandon. Dave let go of his sister and instead walked up to the other girl, eyebrows coming together behind his dark lenses. "Look, Jade, I know you're excited as a fucking kid at a freak show, but please, can you calm your deranged mouth and be a little bit quieter?"

"Oh Davie," she giggled, smacking him playfully in the arm, "We're at least two miles from the town, no one's gonna hear us!"

"Well, I still don't think you should be making that much noise."

Rose had caught up to them and comfortingly patted Jade's shoulder. "Dave's right, it doesn't seem like we should be this loud. However, I share your jovial feeling. It seems silly to not laugh since it looks to be like a carnival." Jade pouted. "Fine, I'll quiet down, but only if we can go an' look at the food. I'm soooo hungry, I could eat you all right up!" She licked her lips for good measure. By now, John had gotten over his momentary fright of the blood covered tree, chalking it all up to the spirit of the evening, and joined the rest in their merry laughter.

Jade linked arms with Rose and paraded them off to the other side of the clearing, heading for a cotton candy booth. Dave took John by the arm and led him along after them. The two boys spotted a tiny tent, more like a very low overhang, that hung off a tree's branches and Dave tugged them towards it to investigate. Under the canvas, sat a girl, only perhaps their age, staring blankly off towards where the other girls were buying popcorn and sweets. She appeared to perk up and turned to face the two boys; in the shadows, her skin seemed grey. As she turned to them, her eyes became visible; the whole of her eye was a bright red, and looked to be glowing in the shadows. Scared, the two jumped back; John had been let go of and fell, landing flat on his ass. The girl looked towards him as he clumsily stood up, and then started laughing. Actually it sounded more like cackling, like something you would hear from a witch. She then grinned at them with a mouthful of teeth like a shark's, and questioned them "He he, so what brings you boys out this far into the woods?"

Dave pulled the flyer out of his pocket and smoothed it out. "This freak show flyer we found. Seemed like a fun thing to waste time on so-"

He was cut off by John stepping forward and interrupting, "What Dave here means to say is, it looked legit, so we thought we'd come." He smiled brightly at the girl, who started laughing again. "Believe me," she began. "This show is real. It's not for the weak of heart or stomach, so if you scare easily like whiny widdle grub, I suggest you leave now."

"I guess that means you gotta leave, Egbert." Dave nudged him jokingly in the side and received a giggle and a light punch in the chest.

The girl continued, "All of us here hope to debunk your theory that we're not real, and we hope you think this is the best show you'll ever see. Forever and ever!" Her short monologue seemed to be punctuated by an even wider grin. Pointing towards Jade and Rose, she giggled and said, "Looks like your friends are coming. You all better get to the big-top soon, cos' the show's about to start!" Sliding gracefully out of her chair, she turned and skipped away into another tent behind the tree, never once coming into the light. The boys looked at each other and then in the direction she had pointed. Sure enough, Jade and Rose were calling them over with shouts of "The show's starting! The show's starting!"

* * *

As the small group filed into the colourful tent, they saw more silhouettes of people in tents that were connected in the back of the big-top, and they guessed that these shadows belonged to the performers. All of the teens were extremely excited to see this show, and even John was grinning and laughing along with them as they chatted about what they thought they would see. They stopped for a moment, and glanced around the interior of the tent; the inside looked huge, mostly because of the soaring ceilings and large stage. The seating for the audience was only a few tiers high and encircled the entirety of the performer's floor; and, as the kids were slow to notice, completely empty. They were the only ones here. Their earlier uncertainty filtered back, but they all pushed it away and raced each other to "find" seats.

Eventually deciding to sit in the front row directly across from the freak's entrance, the four collectively held their breath as the lights inside and outside the tent went dark.

The show was starting.

After a good whole minute in the darkness, a single spotlight flicked on in the center of the ring, bathing a sole person in white light. Or, wait; was it two people standing there? There were two feet, connected to two legs, two arms, one torso and one extra-wide chest, but ended in two heads. The heads looked surprisingly alike, like they were twins, but the line of prominent stiches along the center of the torso revealed that they were not supposed to be attached to each other like that.

However, this grotesque-looking mutilation was not the scariest thing about the performers.

The scariest thing was the fact that they both were not human.

Their skin was grey, like concrete, and darker tinged on the scars where the stiches were. Where their eyes should be white, they were yellow, and larger irises and pupils gave them a more animalistic look. Horns poked out of black hair that somehow was like the human's and not; it seemed thicker, like an animal's fur. The horns themselves were yellow-orange, and striped almost like candy corn. The twin on the right looked to be male, although his horns were nubby and rounded at the ends, and seemed more cute than intimidating; his irises gleamed bright red in the spotlight. On the left, the other twin's facial structure was softer, making her a girl; her horns were larger, looked like cat ears, and were more scary looking than her brother's; her irises flamed a grassy green.

The costume they wore mirrored their eye colours. The boy's side of the top was green striped with ivory, and the girl's contained white polka dots on a bright red. Puffy, eggshell coloured Victorian styled lace collars were wrapped around their necks. The pants ended around their knees, and were a mixture of blue and cream. Their whole ensemble looked reminiscent of a clown's, but with a more sinister side. The cloth did not cover their shoulders, and showed off the top bit of the line of 'x' stitching that ran up and down the body. The costumed looked worn, and was patched with pieces of off-coloured fabric that looked to be sewn on messily, as though a young child had done it. Though the garb was old and dirty, the performers themselves looked to be only around the kids' age.

The twins grinned simultaneously, revealing matching sets of sharp teeth, and they even spoke together.

"Welcome, ladies and gentletrolls, to the Tree of Haints Freak Show!"

Even without a microphone or any sort of amplification, their combined voices easily rang inside the tent.

The male side nodded to the girl side and she began again, "I am Nepeta Leijon," and her brother completed with "and I am Karkat Vantas." They spoke together once more. "And we will be your ringleader!"

Nepeta smiled, much like a cat would at a mouse that is about to become its plaything, and giggled. Karkat led them in a turn around the nearly empty ring, and in spotting the small group of humans, stopped so they could perform directly to their only audience. They clasped their hands together and laughed again before Karkat spoke once more.

"This show will not be something of fantasy, something you feeble minded humans seem to love. Instead, this show will churn your stomachs and rattle your bones with how terrified you'll be as we show you what TRUE terror and horror is."

Done with her sizing up of the humans, Nepeta picked up where Karkat left off.

"We'll show you how things can seem purrfectly normal, but truly aren't! This night will be furevor engrained in your minds, we purromise you that."

Karkat's ornery tone broke in with "You won't ever forget the acts we are about to show you, and be warned that all of you are ALL in for the night of your pathetic lives."

Swinging their arms to her side, Nepeta crooned "Cower and shifur, feel the rush of danger when we release the Wild One, who can only be stopped by one troll."

Not to be outdone, Karkat swept their arms in a circle and proclaimed "Be heart broken by the Siren's song and be terrified by the Spinneret's spiders and dance upon the high wire."

"This is only a small taste of what you're in fur tonight!"

Turning to each other, they grinned, and said as one, "You'll be amazed at what we'll show you. We hope that this will be the greatest show you'll ever see."

The kids clapped, albeit, a bit uneasily. These twins didn't seem quite sane, with the constant laughing and grinning.

Nepeta took over speaking again, introducing the first act.

"Fur our furst purrformance, we have the Dance of Blood! Cringe as this girl braves pain and her maroon blood in a dance that will leave you all – "

"Oh shut up Nepeta and let Aradia perform already."

The lights were killed again and they exited. When the lights came back, they were a dark red and filled the entire ring, like the stage lights were filling the whole tent with liquid blood. Standing stage left was a girl who was only about the same age as the ringleaders. Like them, she was not human, but instead of nubby horns and yellow eyes, she was far more intimidating. Her horns were like a rams, thick and curving around her ears; pure milky white eyes glowed out from behind long, curly black hair. Her body was thin and willowy, complemented by her costume. Black and maroon came together on her wispy frame, consisting of a shimmery halter dress with black tights. Holes pocked the bottom of the dress and made runs in the tights, making the girl looked undead or ghostly. An Aries mark was tattooed upon her cheek in the same maroon of her garment.

Slowly, she stepped forward and shook her hair behind her shoulders. The four of the audience gasped; attached to her arms and legs were a variety of knives and needles, glinting from their slings and sheathes. An eerie voice echoed though the tent, one of hollowness, like the owner was empty. It came from the girl.

"My name is Aradia Megido, and I do not feel pain."

In a swirl of dark red, worn tights, and motion, Aradia began her dance. The grace in her movements matched the skill she used as she propelled herself off her toes into the air. Suddenly, a flash of silver from Aradia's wrist caused a splatter of maroon to light up an arc on the floor. Upon her landing, the kids saw a symbol carved into her right thigh, just above the knee, where the lacy material of the dress fluttered up. It was not long before she was moving again, and more silver sparkles were seen dancing from her fingers. At the end of a series of turns, the whole of her left leg was pierced with a myriad of needles, ranging from tiny, viciously sharp sewing needles to some more than five inches long with dull tips. More dull red splattered in the ring, some almost hitting the audience. Her milky eyes never changed focus, always directed at something no one could see, just beyond the tent's walls.

The dance continued on, sending her maroon blood in all directions, forming a large set of circles, spiraling towards the center of the ring. Leaping into the air, a knife was released and caught between her teeth on the decent. She stopped moving for only a moment, raised her palms, drew them along the out facing blade, and struck her final pose, the center of a whirling, bloody storm. Her arms and legs, and even her face, were laced with symbols and needles, all lining up to form a picture of bleeding, broken heart stabbed through by the knife she clenched in her teeth.

The audience gave her a standing ovation. Rose was fascinated at either her ability to disregard the pain that she must have felt, or wondered how it was possible to not feel the aggravation of the multiple stabs and cuts. Dave and Jade were both just concerned with the legitimacy of the act. John wondered how she was going to heal.

Inside the tent, the lights went dark again.

A single spotlight came back on, and Nepeta and Karkat pranced back into the center of the ring. "Wasn't that simply wonderfurl?" mewled Nepeta. Karkat flicked her in the head and continued their lines. "Shut up, we don't have all night, so let's get moving on to our next act. Up next, we have our Man of Stone. Feel the ground shake as he approaches!"

Sure enough, the ground did tremble, as though a giant was heading towards the tent. Jade clung to Dave's arm, though he remained poker-faced as ever. All went dark in the tent once more, and the shaking became accompanied by a noise only comparable to a thunderclap. A faint light flared up on the far side of the tent, like a tiny candle. The light swayed and came closer to the audience then stopped moving around the center of the stage. A screen was lit up with a silhouette, presumably of the "Man of Stone."

Fire lit up the perimeter of the stage, miraculously immaculate and free of the maroon splatters from only a minute ago. The stage now held several rocks and steel pipes, various objects that must have weighed extreme amounts. A teenager stepped out from behind a screen, his head wrapped up in a navy turban that covered most of his face and neck. From the small aperture in the cloth, a single yellow eye peered out over a Sagittarius tattoo in the same dark blue of the head wrap. Well-defined muscles bulged under a white, formfitting sleeve, and connected to a blue and white checkered tank top, under which more muscles rippled. The other side of his body was wrapped in more navy cloth, hiding whatever lay underneath from the audiences' eyes. The rest of his legs were also hidden by the layer of blue wrap. This boy's horns looked like arrows, save for the left one being broken in half, leaving a jagged, raw looking edge behind. Of the eye that showed, the deep navy iris pierced the fire's glow. His mouth was hidden behind the cloth that covered most of his body, and his tone was low and gravely; "I am Equius Zahhak, and I am the man made of stone."

Undoing the wrap from his left leg, the cloth fell away to reveal a stretch of grey skin next to patches that seemed to be rocks. The difference in the grey was very subtle, only marginally darker on the stone-like pieces. Much of the difference was shown by the obvious disconnect in texture, the normal skin smooth and uniformly coloured while the mutated skin was lumpy and speckled. The kids gasped as one. Letting the navy fabric fall away from his other leg, it became clear that this leg was almost immobilized by the heavy growth of rock-skin. His entire appendage was eaten up by stone, full of spots and bumps. It looked almost painful.

Shifting uncomfortably, John poked at his skin to make sure he wasn't growing rocks on his arms or anything.

With his slow, booming step, Equius walked to the smallest of the pipes, and picked it up with such ease, it looked as though he hardly noticed the huge steel pipe in his grasp. Placing it down in the center of the ring, he swung at it with the arm wrapped in cloth. The steel crumpled like paper. Swinging again, he sent it flying into the boulders, issuing a clang that nearly deafened the on-lookers. A larger pipe was next on the destruction list, and ended looking worse than the other metal tube, holes punched in it and the sides crushed inwards. The other pipes followed, all succumbing to Equius's massive strength. A boulder was lifted; at least twice the boy's size, he moved the immense rock with all the concentration of lifting a table spoon. He tossed it from hand to hand, showing off his strength, eventually punching it to the ground and cracking it into pieces. A moment later, the boulder burst into tiny fragments, and crumbled like sand. Bowing, the boy turned and left the ring without pausing to hear the _ooohs_ and _aaahs_ he got from the audience. The fire hissed out and the tent darkened before the ringleaders entered again.

They giggled, like they were caught up in some absolutely hilarious private joke, but instead of being cute or funny, it looked incredibly creepy. The twins waved to the four kids and performed to the rest of an audience that wasn't there. "He he, up next we have someone sure to surprise you. He's an oddity that we barely came upon, and we just had to help the poor, unfortunate soul, didn't we Nep?"

"Oh yes, this next purrformer is someone who we all just love here. He's a new member of the family, and this is one of his furst shows, so efurrybody welcome in Sollux Captor, the Snake Boy!"

A sibilant hiss sounded from the back of the ring, silencing the two speaking, as a new performer came out for his act. The twins scuttled off, and the spotlighted widened to fill more of the dirt ring, cleaned of the twisted metal and rock dust. A torso came into the light first, a young troll teen with squinted eyes. His horns were numbered four rather than two, but were small and pointed at the tips. One eye was a fiery red and the other a deep aquamarine, and they seemed to almost crackle with energy. No clothes covered a bare torso, except for a small gold glimmer from a nipple piercing; upon closer inspection, it was a small Gemini symbol, identical to the one tattooed on his forehead in mustard yellow. The yellow didn't just stop at the inking. It seemed to continue up into his hair, shown by yellow scales that bordered his hair, pointed ears, and shoulders.

He slid further into the light. A tail extended from the hips down, cleanly melting into one another. The snake limb was coved in the same yellow-green scales as his hairline and shoulders, only with a pattern of small, blue and red double-diamonds extending down the back all the way from his grey skin to the tail tip. Swiveling his head from side to side, he smelled the four teens in the front row and slithered towards them. He grabbed the railing and leaned closer to them; they leaned back, away from him and his scales. He laughed softly, exposing a set of sharp teeth and a yellow-tipped tongue. Rocking back on his tail, he pushed himself up as tall as he could muster and spoke with a strong lisp as well as a snake like hiss. Swaying on his tail, much like a cobra, he echoed what his ringleader has said earlier, "Hello! I'm Ttthollux Captor. Atttth you can ttttthee, I'm part ttthnake. Cool, huh?" The tip of his tail waved enticingly, shaking a rattle like a rattlesnake. He made a few silly faces and glanced over his scaly shoulder before once again moving close to the kids.

"Why did you come here?" he whispered as quietly as possible. "You have to leave now! It'ttth not ttthafe, they do terrible things to you here!" Sticking his tongue out, the kids saw that his tongue had been split down he center, the wounds raggedly sown shut and speared with gold rings holding the two piece of flesh together. "You can't ever leave onttth they get you!" He lifted his chin, exposing the flickering lights of an LED lighted tracking collar, sewn into his neck. "They MAKE you do terrible things." With that, yellow tears began falling down his face and he slid backwards to continue his comedy act in the center of the ring, feigning a happy expression, though his smile looked as though he was about to be sent off to his death.

Everyone in the small group shuddered, and pressed closer to each other.

The lights dimmed once more, and Sollux slithered as quickly as he could out of the tent and into the freak's night. The sound of his tail on the dirt sent shivers up everyone's spines. Suddenly, this night didn't seem as fun.

They had no time to speak or think before the ring lit up once more, this time unveiling a large circular, clear tank, apparently filled to the brim with water, like an enormous fish aquarium. Swimming lazily about in circles was a girl, her long, black hair streaming out behind her as she swam circles behind the glass. In front of the tank stood the twins, already laughing again, their joke still unknown.

"We hope Sollux didn't furighten you too much, my little purritties!"

"He tends to be a little too dramatic about things, and that lisp just makes it too damn funny." Karkat wiped an imaginary tear away, flicking his finger at the kids, pointing at Dave. Dave tried to not show it, but he shrank away from the finger, pushing himself further into the seat. "Any way, up next we have someone we like to call the Siren, though I guess she'll tell you her name."

They ran off to the left, and the lights focused a bit, only lighting up the fish tank in a neon glow. The girl was still swimming, though now it became obvious that she was not exactly like the other trolls before her. Her face was lit by the light, and two delicate-looking fins protruded from her face, sparkling in the glow. A thin crown, more of a tiara, sparkled along the front of her forehead, centered with a fuchsia coloured gem. The eyes peering out from behind her floating curtain hair matched the precious stone in colour, as did the tattoo of the Pisces symbol on her cheek. Drifting closer to the glass, she spotted the humans watching her, and smiled brightly, her shark-like teeth somehow looking nicer and friendlier than the others'; a hand waved behind the shimmery glass, and she swam to the edge. Hair drifting out behind her, the girl's costume was seen. A skimpy bikini-style top was made up of a pair of natural coloured shells, tied with sparkling magenta strings. Pinkish ruffles on her sides were not fabric, but the edges of gills, fluttering gently as she breathed in and out underwater. Dozens of bangles and bracelets in gold, brown, and rose-pink covered her wrists. Her lower half was covered by a ruffled, tiered skirt, in the same natural brown of the shells, accented by raspberry sparkles. Jutting out from under the skirt however, was not a pair of feet; instead, a fish tail replaced her legs. The scales shone a fuchsia hue like her eyes, and the fin on the end was thin and delicate like the fins on her face. She was a mermaid, and the name "Siren" made much more sense.

As she swam to the surface, the lights changed to a pink hue that matched her clothes. She broke the surface, spraying water out of her nose and mouth. The girl clutched the rim of the pool, and pulled herself up onto a platform that jutted out over the tank; her posture while sitting was even more reminiscent of a mermaid, tail swishing gently in the water while she perched precariously over the waves.

Though she smiled and tried her best to look merry, her voice was that of a little girl, sad and scared. It was also beautiful, not at all changed by age or situation. It rang out as she spoke. "My name is Feferi Peixes, and I am a mermaid. At least, that's what they all tell me." She smiled, and now it seemed sad instead of happy, changed by her voice. "I hope you'll like my song."

Taking a single breath, she opened her mouth and sang.

Even Dave let out a few tears as her words cut through to his heart. Feferi sang sweetly of a heaven, a place she wished she'd be, rather than be trapped here in the trees. The sound of the sweet, pure voice filled the groups' ears, putting them into a sort of a daze, frozen still as Feferi crooned on. Her words were sad, and told a tale of suffering at the hands of a cruel master, trapped in a cage. High notes echoes as she warbled that she and others wanted to die so they could be free, be free of the pain they felt in this world.

"And though you want to cry~ and though we want to die~ we'll continue the story, the sad story of this show. Forever~"

She sighed, whispered "I'm sorry," and slid into the water with a small splash.

The lights went dark. The group clapped in the darkness, tears cascading down their faces. Jade openly sniffled and cried into Dave's sleeve, while he shed a single tear under his black lenses. John and Rose wept as quietly as possible. One by one, the lights on the tent poles lit up the whole tent, and Karkat and Nepeta stepped into the center of the ring. "Wasn't that just soooo sad? It hurts me so much efurry time!" Green eyes glittering maliciously, Nepeta grinned cattishly, and patted her brother's head. "Why don't you tell them?"

"Fine. Anyway, we'll be taking a short break, only five minutes or so because no one in this gogdamn show can ever get their shit together on time. Being the leader of this shit hole is harder than it looks. We'll be back soon, so feel free to get some food from outside, stretch, what the fuck ever, just be back in five if you want to see the rest of the show."

They turned and walked to the back of the ring and through the freaks' entrance. The small curtain pulled shut, sealing the kids out. Looking between each other and wiping the tears they had left from Feferi's act, stood up one at a time. Rose looked once more towards the curtain separating them from the freaks, and then followed the others outside. Jade was returning to her normal bubbly self and was the first one to speak.

"Wow!"

"Wow?" John questioned. "What do you mean wow?"

"I mean that was real! It was really real, in your face Dave!" She grinned happily and spun in a small circle before grabbing Rose and John. "You guys wanna get some more food? I'm hungry again." A growl from her stomach sent the others into a fit of giggles and John led away her towards the smells of sugar and salt. After a moment, Dave tapped his sister on the shoulder. "Just how long were we in there?" he whispered. Glancing towards the sky, a pair of lavender eyes found the moon had shifted quite a bit since they had entered the tent. "At least two, maybe three hours." "Damn," and he shook his head with disbelief. They followed the trail of the other's footprints in the dust, with a few glances towards the smaller tents that sat in a circle behind the big top. They heard a wild whoop of laughter and hurried a bit to catch up with the other two. Chatting amiably between themselves, they forgot about what the snake boy had warned them. It was probably part of his act, and they didn't need to worry. Purchasing some popcorn for all four of them, a few sodas, and two sticks of candy floss, the four kids returned to the tent and sat back down in their seats just as the spotlight flickered on. Karkat and Nepeta were back, the colours of their costume brightened once more by the single beam of white light. Karkat grinned and welcomed them back before Nepeta took over. "The night is still young, and we have more things to show you befur the sun rises, so hang on tight to your seats. Next we have one of my purrsonal fafurite acts, the Wild One! We beg of you to be absolutely quiet as he can snap at any loud noise, and we wouldn't want that now, would we?" She looked at her brother, who nodded with a very obviously fake sad expression. "Now without further ado, we give you the Wild One and his tamer!"

A vicious snarl came from the darkness surrounding the small circle of light, and Karkat gave a small wave at the kids before he and Nepeta scampered behind the curtain.

In a flurry of fur and growling, suddenly a boy stood in the ring, lit by a flashing black light. His indigo eyes were those of one who was not sane, wild and lit with a primitive fire. Horns that sat atop his head were half hidden by a crazy tangle of black hair that didn't stop on his head; large ridges of black hair wound their way down his grey skin, along the outside of his arms and legs. Clothing hung in rags on his body, the only really solid piece being his pants, which were more or less shorts now, which stopped above his knees, and even they were full of holes. Around his neck was a metal studded collar, with teeth sewn onto the thick piece of leather. The only thing that kept him from rushing towards the kids was a heavy chain that was clipped to his collar, which he strained against with all his might. A voice came from the darkness.

"Gamzee, please stop. I-I think they're scared enough."

The boy in the lights visibly relaxed and grinned dazedly as he sat down on his haunches, much like a dog. Or rather, in this case, a wolf or bear.

The voice came again.

"Good boy, now can you, uhh, come and get me."

The light faded to a soft white as Gamzee left the beam's eye and returned a moment later holding in his arms a smaller boy. The new addition, patted the larger once on the head, and he was set down gently, as though the wilder one was afraid that he would break him. The whole way he acted as more reserved, like the new boy was precious but breakable. Sitting safely on the ground, the new troll began to speak.

"H-hello, my name is Tavros, T-Tavros Nitram, and this," gesturing to the Wild One, "is Gamzee Makara." Seeing as they were calmer now, the danger of Gamzee killing them and tearing their bodies to shreds lessened, the kids noticed the indigo Capricorn symbol that wound around Gamzee's right eye and the light brown Taurus inking around Tavros' left eye. Tavros' horns jutted out, like a bulls, accentuated by his short, fluffy Mohawk, and were far more intimidating than Gamzee's, whose looked more like a goat's. All intimidation was lost when the audience realized that Tavros was paralyzed, his hips and legs twisted to the left and shrunken, useless dead bones and meat. Gamzee had to pick him up to move him anywhere, and he did it with great care and patience.

Dave made a loud cat-call whistle, and Gamzee immediately flung himself against the chain, straining to get an attack in at the snowy cold boy. "Gamzee!" Tavros snapped, chocolaty brown eyes glinting, all softness lost. The indigo-eyed troll retreated behind Tavros and nuzzled his face into the other's hair, hiding like a child. "Better." Eyeing Dave, he lifted his chin and started again. "I-if you really want to see something, wait one moment." He clicked his tongue under his breath, and a young goat meandered into the circle of light, bleating softly. Jade clasped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from making a noise about how cute the little beast was. Tavros spoke once more, directed at Gamzee only.

"Kill."

The reaction was instantaneous. Gamzee's eyes lit up from inside, full of bloodlust and purpose, insanely rolling in their sockets. A moment later, all that remained of the goat was a bright red smear of blood across the floor and the leg bone that Gamzee sat gnawing on, contented for the moment. Tavros fixed a steel cold glare at Dave. "Is that enough for you?" The boy didn't answer.

Jade cried, hating seeing the slaughter of the tiny goat. John had stumbled away and thrown up; he couldn't stand the sight of Gamzee devouring the animal. Rose sat shocked. Her brother was actually slightly splattered with the blood from the kill, and was in much the same state as her.

From the floor, Tavros called for Gamzee to take him offstage, and the single spot light returned with the ringleaders. Nepeta purred contentedly, and Karkat giggled insanely.

"Sorry they couldn't stay longer, kittys. Tavvy doesn't want to put Gamzee up to too much killing in one night, he says it makes him harder to convince."

"Ready for the next act?"

"Karkitty, just introduce Ampurra and let him purrform."

"Fine, fine. We now present to you the great magician of our show. He'll dazzle you with his feats of dark magic, so hold onto your hats, it's about to get, he he, freaky."

They left, and the spotlight roved to the left side of the ring and onto a boy wearing a purple cape. The garment fluttered out behind him, looking like a super hero scene in a movie; no wonder there was a breeze to move the fabric. It was being worn from a staggering height, as the boy swung slowly back and forth upon the trapeze, swinging his legs. Suddenly, he sharply leaned back, enough to fall to his death with a broken neck at least fifty feet below him. He plummeted down, down, twisting in a nose dive. John squeezed his eyes shut, Dave gasped, Rose pushed her face into Dave's arm, as did Jade.

A second later, a purple cape fluttered softly to the ground, its owner, vanished. A puff of smoke lingered, and it smelled faintly of flowers and trees, like the hope in the outdoors. Fingers reached for the plum cloak, snatched it up and twirled it magnificently around a pair of shoulders, fastening the clasp in a single motion from endless amounts of practice. The teen looked towards the audience, his deep violet eyes glancing over each of the four humans huddled in the seats. He smirked, ran a hand through the purple highlight in his hair and let out a throaty chuckle. "Well, you didn't expect me to die, did you? That'd be one shitty act. My name is Eridan, Eridan Ampora, and I'm going to wow y'all."

Eridan's costume consisted of the mentioned purple cape, which included a hood that he now had flipped up onto his head, his wavy horns poking through two identical holes. A pair of small fins jutted out from his face, like Feferi's had, only his looked mangled, with ripped edges and the left one being held on by a few flaps of skin and silk thread. The hair on his scalp was gelled out of his face and held a lightning-bolt shaped purple highlight that extended back from his bangs. His costume was, like the others, almost in tatters; a pair of black knee-length shorts with silver swirls and a light weight plum tank top both were patched messily, and the shorts frayed at the hems. Two purple shirt cuffs were clipped around Eridan's wrists, held on by black buttons. Out of a pocket on a silver belt came a white wand, exquisitely carved with ancient symbols, intricate spells, and swirling magic winds. With a flick of his wrist, the wand spewed a torrent of what looked like black tar, filling the ground around his feet quickly. The tar-like stuff piled up, looking like it was filling a box around Eridan's body, climbing up and up his legs, then his torso, and then his head and hood, until only the tip of his horns remained sticking out of the substance. The black liquid then was filled with lights, shimmering like stars in the night sky; the box floated upwards, morphing into a bubble. Almost thirty feet off the ground, the bubble burst, and little drops of rainwater splashed the kids below. Eridan was back on the ground in a matter of nanoseconds, not even waiting for applause before launching into his next trick.

Snapping his fingers, Nepeta and Karkat wheeled a medium sized glass box onto the stage. "Though I am a sea dweller, I have never been able to breathe under water," he began. He levitated upwards, and dropped down into the box. The ring leaders sealed the glass shut, and reached down to fix a hose to the side. Eridan spoke again. "Let's see how long I can last without air." And with that, the box flooded with water. Soon the glass was entirely filled, and Eridan still smiled calmly, with not a bubble escaping his lips. Lifting his finger, he traced a few symbols in the water, fingertip glowing faintly and leaving the writing in a sparkling dark trail. A loud crack was heard and the glass box shattered. The kids screamed, shrinking away from the shower of thick, broken glass, until they realized that the glass had frozen in midair, mere inches from their faces. John reached up and prodded at one of the shards until it flung back towards the magician, forming a glass rose before his eyes.

He performed a few more tricks, truly wowing the humans with the dark magic that he was able to produce. Deftly stepping to the center of the ring, Eridan made a hushing motion with one finger while making a small motion with his other. As Karkat and Nepeta pushed a wooden box into the stage area behind him, he vaguely explained the trick he was about to perform. "This will be my finale, the Pheonix. Watch." He opened the side door of the box and stepped inside. The twins pushed it shut and locked it with a click. They then knocked twice and received a knock back from inside; he was ready.

Then something unexpected happened.

Right before their eyes, the box which contained a living, breathing troll, exploded into flames. The fire ignited with a roar, so hot that the kids shrank away and so high that it licked at the ceiling, reducing the dry wood of the box to cinders in only a few moments. All the remained was a miniscule pile of ashes. It had all happened so fast; there would have been no way to escape the blaze through a trap door or even a chance to extinguish the flames. Eridan had really disappeared.

Everyone in the group was stunned silent.

Jade felt a breeze behind her head and a faint voice whisper, "C'mon look up!"

Following what the voice told her, she looked up, and was face to face with the cocky magician, dangling by his feet from the trapeze. She yelped in fear and excitement, and clapped furiously, the others joining as Eridan took his place once more in the center of the stage, bowed, and followed his spotlight backstage.

Nepeta and Karkat were positively doubled over with laughter, cackling madly and rolling on the floor, clutching their stomach. After a moment, they stopped laughing so hard and stood up. Nepeta wiped green tears of mirth from the corners of her eyes, still giggling, as Karkat struggled to muffle his laughter with his hand. Still chuckling, Nepeta mewled and spun them around.

"Are you reeeeady? Are you ready, Karkitty?"

He flicked her in the ear and while she smarted, he took over announcing duties. "Well, that took longer than we expected, so why don't we hurry along. I'd like to elaborate on this next bitch's act, but I'll have to give you the fucking abridged version. Ok, basically, she does some shit with spiders, any arachnophobiacs leave now, see ya'."

Nepeta growled softly, and they left the spotlight.

The stage lights shut off, and for a minute, the humans sat in the darkness. Dave was about to call out when a harsh industrial-power bulb flashed into power, bathing a hidden tightrope in light, as well as the girl balanced precariously on a small platform. The ledge was no more than a foot long by two feet wide, and she stood on the edge, overlooking the almost empty tent. She spotted the kids that were almost sixty feet below the soles of her bare feet and waved to them, grinning with her dagger-like teeth. Her long black hair almost reached her knees, and was spilling out of a fanciful ponytail that hung down her side and shoulder. A black, silk eye patch covered her left eye, and was speckled with seven ruby red gem stones arranged in a circle. The rest of her costume was hard to see from the ground angle.

With a step that seemed to defy gravity, the girl took a jump from the ready platform and onto the high wire. Stepping gracefully, she soon reached the center of the taut wire. Her steps stopped, and she balanced in the center of empty space for a moment before reaching up and carefully, slowly, undoing the ties on her eye patch; the item fell away, swooping down to the floor of the arena. If she was closer to the kids, they would have seen an eye socket deprived of its charge, leading to a black abyss and a blue membrane that protected the inside of the head from the outside. A black rash crawled across her face, coming out of the hole in her skull.

It was spiders. Lots and lots of spiders.

Arachnids both large and small legged their way out of the girl's eye, down her face in a waterfall of black exoskeleton and spindly legs, and across her chest and arm. They took to the high wire, laying out tiny ropes of nearly invisible spider silk and dropping to line the wire with an innumerable amount of dangling spiders. Soon, the cavity where the spiders slept was empty, and the girl sighed contentedly. Leaving the wire behind, she flipped backwards, catching the built up silk webbing and dangling there before dropping down on a drag line of silk the spiders clinging to her arm wove for her. She cast off the webbing hanging from the wire above, swinging forward towards the audience. The horns on her head were an odd pair; one swooped upwards before branching off in a sort of claw, and the other curved upwards before switching and growing down, like a hook. Her costume now came into focus; a pirate-like dress was white, blue, and black and complimented the cerulean eye and Scorpio insignia on the left side of her forehead. The dress itself consisted of a white under-slip, a blue strapless layer of tulle and other voluminous material, and capped off with black, web-like lace. Her toe nails and claws were painted a vicious crimson red, shown off by the lace that wound and wrapped around her left arm and right leg. Catching an invisible spider silk rope in midair, the girl hung in the center of the ring, as close to the kids as she could get. With a rather bitch-like attitude and a toss of her pony tail, she spoke. "My name is Vriska Serket, but you can call me the Spider's Mistress." She winked at John, relishing in his squirm of embarrassment and bright red blush, before she gave a huge swing on the ropes and flipped herself back up onto the wire. She stood akimbo, hands on her hips, very pirate-like with the lacy dress whipping around her thighs.

With a finger wiggle, she called forth some of the spiders on the wire and forced them to line up along her left arm before dropping down and building up a lace web. They then repeated it on the other side, leaving her with billowing sleeves of spider web. Performing several rather risky gymnastics moves on the tightly stretched wire, it became apparent to the kids that she preferred her right arm over her left. She kicked herself up into a handstand, and before she was even in the position for a moment, she swung forwards into a series of giants on the flimsy wire, shaking it wildly. With a release of her hands, she flipped downwards and was caught in a net of lacey silk. Everyone clapped madly. Vriska then stood, and called her spiders to weave a sort of harness, which they achieved in a short amount of time. She then shouted "Flyyyyyyyy!" and leaped from the net, swinging towards the audience.

The power from the swing was enough to launch her back up to the high wire, which she did with no trouble. She called her spiders back, condensing them into a tight hanging cluster beneath her feet. As she danced along the thin wire, the spiders dissipated and the wire beneath her feet became a writhing mass of black carapace shell and an infinite amount of eight-set eyes, trailing tiny, shimmering strands behind them. Once again reaching the center of the wire, Vriska took a pause. The spiders crawled out from the tight rope, seeming to vanish into the air beneath the wire. Vriska sat down and calmly told the kids not to look away; she then pushed off the perch, without a safety harness. She fell, flipping once, twice, three times before stopping in midair it seemed. The lights above and below moved slightly, and an intricate web of silks lay across the entire tent. Pieces were attached to the ceiling, to the wire itself, to the poles of the tent and the support beams, even to the seat legs of the front row seats. Vriska Serket herself hung perched in the center, and tight webbing of spider silk wrapped around her arms, legs and torso. The spiders seemed to rematerialize and crawled back up the web towards her eye socket. She smiled as they reentered her face and the lights went dark under the clapping from the kids.

The ringleaders returned with their single spotlight, blazing green and red on the dirt behind them. The colours seemed a bit brighter than before, but John told them that was what happened when your eyes got tired. Rose backed him up, and they all settled back down. Nothing was wrong.

After getting the audience's attention again, Karkat whispered something to Nepeta, and she perked up hearing it. They shared a giggle then spoke to the teens. "That was spooky wasn't it?"

"Nepeta, we've seen that before, stop acting like you're surprised every time. We have to move on if we want to finish this before …" he trailed off. Nepeta clapped a hand over his mouth and giggled nervously.

"Ehehe, nothing Karkitty. Anyway, next we have our friend, the efur un-killable Terezi! Watch as she defies death in as many ways as you can think!"

They walked off the stage, and the lights went wild; colours danced along the inner walls of the tent, flashing every colour of the rainbow. In a puff of smoke, a girl appeared in the center of the ring, only around eight or nine feet from the kids. She grinned at them, the psycho lights glinting off her retro, pointed red glasses that hid totally red eyes. John and Dave gasped like fish pulled out of water and looked at each other; it was the girl they had met earlier! Now though, her plain tee shirt and jeans had been swapped for a bright teal leotard with blue and red streamers coming off the shoulders and frills from the leg apertures. Her horns were now shown, small, perfect cones jutting out at a forty-five degree angle from her crown. A teal Libra mark filled her entire forehead, the loop almost disappearing in her hair line. She laughed her cackle of a noise, and clapped gleefully as the lights died down to a few beams the pulsated around her body. Taking a few steps forward, she did a little turn and stopped in front of the audience. "Hehe, don't try to hide, I can smell you just fine from here!"

Noting their smiles, she continued with "As you now know, I am Terezi Pyrope, master of death!" She pointed to Jade. "So what do you suggest?"

"Huh?"

"How should I try to kill myself first?"

"Uhh, I don't know! How about you don't, that'd be really really scary!"

"Just name something, Ms. Green Apple Blast."

Jade stuttered, then finally smiled a bit and offered that Terezi shoot herself.

"A wonderful idea! Karkles, bring out the big guns!"

He and his sister reappeared with a pistol, a rifle, and a shotgun. Quick as a whip, Terezi picked up the hand gun and held it to her temple. With a bang, a teal spray erupted across her spotlight, and she still stood unwavering. Turning to the side, the kids were allowed to watch as the hole resealed itself and grew new flesh again in a matter of seconds. Next was the rifle, which Nepeta pulled the trigger of and sent a bullet into Terezi's heart, yielding the same results. The shot gun followed with a shot to the throat. Jade clapped after each gunshot when she saw Terezi unfazed by them.

John was next. He was addressed as Mr. Blue Raspberry and offered a chance to try and kill her. After a moment, he responded. "Jump off the high wire," tripping over his words only once.

She gladly obliged, only lying stunned for a moment before standing up, bones reset and organs re-inflated after only a sixty seconds.

Rose got her turn, and Terezi was stabbed through the chest multiple times, letting the teal soak into her garment. She now held a bored expression and stated that "For someone so well learned, Scholar Lavendernose, you sure picked something boring. Everyone asks for that." Hands on hips, she shook her head disapprovingly, then turned to Dave and sniffed.

"Oh my gog, you smell delicious. I'm getting cherry and cream at the same time and even bits of caramel! Absolutely scrumptious!"

Dave shifted awkwardly, blushing lightly. He scratched at his nose before she went on. "So what do you want to see, Mr. Cherry Deliciousness?"

"How about you hang yourself? Seems like it'd be something you'd do."

"Well I've never done THAT one before, but sounds fun. Let's do this Karkles!"

Right on cue, a rope noose dropped down above her head. She stepped onto a colourful cube and fitted the rope around her neck. With and artful kick, she sent the cube flying to the right, and dangled from the ropes end. A moment later, she dropped down from the loop, throat puffing back out as she inhaled. Terezi grinned again, bowed and walked off with her cube tucked under and arm.

Dave turned to John and mouthed "Wow."

Nepeta and Karkat were left howling with laughter in the spotlight they had trained on them. After they recovered, they grabbed hands and spun around. With a great whoop or cheers from Nepeta, Karkat said "How was that? She always makes the patrons so happy."

Nepeta pulled a sad little smile out and even sniffled, like she was about to start crying. "Sadly though, we only have one more act left fur tonight."

"Everyone, meet the Vampire Butterfly."

The back curtain parted and a lithe girl stepped out, her almost white skin glowing, and her face mostly shrouded by jade-green lace. From her back came the gentle flutter of wings, and when she turned around, a pair of misty, delicate-looking butterfly wings spanned her shoulders and lower back. Her dress cut low in the back, only a halter tie and the top and a deep scoop down to her tailbone; the fabric was a dark jade, and complemented her eyes and the Virgo sign that marked her cheek. Two small fangs hung out over her lower lip, and her lips were painted darker than the others' with some sort of lipstick that bordered on black and green. The horns on her head were curved gently, with one hooking downwards, and seemed to be the anchor for many of the cloaks. The veils hid most of her outline, giving her an angelic look, and paired with the mottled colour wings and soft white glow, she looked ready to ascend straight to heaven. She was beautiful.

The girl drew a few of the shrouds away from her face, and enunciated clearly with every word. "Hello, my name is Kanaya Maryam, and I am a true rainbow drinker. Or, as your culture calls them, vampire folk. I will not harm you, I assure you, I only mean to entertain."

Kanaya drew away many of the other veils, and smiled slightly, the curve of her black-painted lips matching that of her horns. She shed the fabrics, letting them pool at her feet as she lifted off the ground, beating her jade and black fairy-like wings. A sort of powder cascaded from the thin vibrating membranes, showering most of the area, and most importantly, the kids in the front row. For the last few acts, they had been finding it harder and harder to think clearly as their eyelids drooped further and further shut. They blamed it on the ungodly hour of the night, now somewhere close to four in the morning. They had been at the freak grounds for almost four hours now, and they were normally dreaming at this time, not sitting awake watching the strangest creatures they had ever seen.

What they did not know, was that the dust that fell on their faces as Kanaya flew by over their heads was a sleeping powder. All of the food had been spiked with a mild sedative, only truly triggered by another sleeping agent, and the dust was enough to start the process and began to coax them to sleep; as it began to work its magic, the ringleader reappeared. They had hands over their mouths, stifling laugher, their game finally playing out. Kanaya landed in front of the sleepy teens and gently bowed her head. She whispered softly "I'm sorry" to them, as she ran away from them, the curtain making a muted brushing sound.

Dave tried to force his eyelids open, but they fell together. Jade was already dozing on his arm and shoulder. Rose yawned deeply, and rubbed at her eyes, and glanced at John as he tried to blink himself awake. None of their methods worked, and soon they were all slumped against one another, deep and soundly asleep; Dave snored quietly and his glasses slid down his nose, Rose mumbled in her dreams, Jade smiled softly with her happy thoughts, and John looked scared yet angelic.

All of them were unconscious, and did not see Karkat and Nepeta draw closer and closer, now openly laughing; they did not feel themselves be lifted from their seats by the trolls and moved behind the curtain, into the tents behind the big top.

The red, green, and teal tent now lay entirely empty.

Lights blackened, and a haunting tune played through the empty, dark air.

* * *

All that Dave could feel was pain.

His throat burned as the knife dipped into the incision again and again, each time pulling out pieces of his vocal cords. They tugged slightly before snapping with semi-audible twangs. The boy on the operating block writhed and twisted, but was held down firmly by a pair of grey hands while a green skull mask gazed fondly upon him from above. Dave felt his joints go limp as the scalpel was nicked over a small point on his spine. He tried to scream, but all that came out was a rush of air from the holes in his neck and his ravaged voice box.

He thought he was going to die.

A knife, still dripping with the remains of his vocal chords, dived into his open mouth. One quick movement later and he was left choking and spitting out his tongue, blood filling his mouth. A moment later, a branding iron was thrust in between his teeth and as grey fingers held his mouth gaping, cauterized the rough slice wound where his tongue used to be. The smell of burning flesh permeated the tent as the muscle was clamped shut and sealed with the red-hot metal.

A thick needle pierced the skin of his upper lip, and soon his entire mouth was stitched shut with a large silken thread.

The last thing he remembered before blacking out an ominous voice echoing down on him, layering over giggles and cackles at his feeble struggles.

"You will now be the Marionette. Smile, Dave Strider, and remember to always perform. The audience will get the best show of their lives."

* * *

With a flutter of eyelids, a girl with pale blonde hair awoke.

Rather than feeling a chill as she usually did in her home, as her mother always forgot to close the windows and let in drafts, she was wrapped warmly and snuggly, covered by a worn quilt. Light was filtering into the room where she slept, and was the colour of a bird's egg, forcing her to believe that is was morning. Sitting up in the bed she found herself in, she studied the quilt that lay over her. She traced her fingers over the intricate patterns, pieced together out of many different fabrics; one moment her finger lay on soft blue cashmere and the next on slippery purple spandex. The quilt had obviously been made with extreme care and compassion, and was used frequently. She slid her legs over the blanket beneath her and sat on the edge of the mattress with her bare feet resting in the dirt. Pulling the quilt tight around her shoulders like a cape, she stood up and tried to take a step forward, towards the door.

Her legs weakened without warning and she crumpled like paper in the rain. The world went askew and for a long moment, her vision hazed and she tumbled downwards.

Cracking her eyes open, she did not gaze upon her mother as she had thought she would. Instead she found herself looking up a slightly luminous face, though she blamed in on the light coming in the window. The girl who caught her, or maybe it was a woman, smiled slightly down at her, and asked if she was alright. She seemed familiar, but the girl being cradled like a glass figurine did not recognize the face. She was gently lifted and set back down upon the mattress, the quilt returned to its warm embrace of her shoulders.

Kanaya looked at the girl before her, now glowing slightly as she did. "Rose," she whispered with a glance at the healing bite mark on the pale neck, "you should not have tried to walk. The Change has taken a toll on your mortal body and it will take a while for you to regain your strength. Until then you need to rest." She ran her almost grey, almost paper touch across Rose's cheek, and saw the girl smile dreamily. "Lie down now, and sleep. I'll return when you wake."

With her gentle command, Rose laid down again, and pulled Kanaya down with her. She didn't know who this Rose the girl was talking about was, but she was tired, and she wanted to sleep. Her dreams had been plagued with strange nightmares about a freak show, full of blood and terror, and she was really quite tired. She snuggled close into the curve of the girl's body, her face flush with the beginning of the troll's neck. Just as sleep came back to claim her, she felt her fingertips brush a pair of dusty wings attached to the girl's back.

Rose jolted up, throwing off the quilt. She saw Kanaya's horns and remembered the show last night, how she and her friends had come and fallen asleep. "Where are they?" she growled, sounding far more feral than she was used too. All traces of sleep had fled her, and she was consumed with a wave of rage, wanting to know what had happened to her companions. "Kanaya, where are they?"

"Rose, do not be upset, but I need to ask who you are talking about."

"Shut up! You're hiding them from me, aren't you? Give them back right now!" She grappled with Kanaya's soothing touch, trying to stay focused on the fact that her friends were missing. "I need to find them!"

"Rose, I have a feeling you're having a panic attack. Calm down, please. A rainbow drinker is not one to be messed with when angry. I assure you your friends are alright. If it pleases you, we will see them later, but for now you need to rest."

"Fuck no! You freaks did something to them, didn't you? Give them back now!"

She jumped up, and fell once more from the weakness in her legs. She still stared defiantly up at Kanaya, who lifted her and gently tucked her into bed.

"Shoosh, sleep, Rose-human, and all will be alright."

"But, but …" she was so tired, and her words trailed off as she fell to sleep once more. Kanaya sighed uneasily. Maybe taking the Rose-girl as her assistant was not the best of ideas.

A few hours later, Kanaya gently roused her new assistant, shaking her by the shoulders. The blonde blinked herself awake, and upon hearing the vampire promising that she could now see her friends, immediately sat up and hugged the luminous girl. She stood up, with a new strength flowing in her limbs, something that she had never felt to this extent. Her skin glittered now, lit straight through with inner lights, and she marveled at the world through new, brighter purple eyes. Everything was so much sharper and more real, like before she had been looking through a glass pane covered by a film of dust; the glass had now been wiped clean and the whole world sparkled before her.

Leaning on Kanaya's shoulder, Rose stepped out of the blue-green tent that she had been sleeping in, and into the center of the freak show's camp. Her clothes had been changed from her regular jeans and tee-shirt into a magnificent purple evening gown, accented with crushed black velvet and gold stitching. The tracking collar that everyone else wore was sewn into the skin at the junction of her neck and skull, blinking red in the twilight that filled the clearing. A quick brush of fingertips along her face and Rose realized a small stinging sensation in her left cheek; she looked into a puddle of fresh rainwater near the tent and saw a light lavender sun-pattern inked onto her cheek. This could only mean one thing.

"I-I'm one of you now?" Her spirits dampened like the weather.

"Yes, Rose. I'm very sorry, but that's what happens to anyone who sees the show. They all become freaks. You humans could not be spared, not be exempted from this cruel fate. We were all trapped when the master took this travelling circus to our lands on Alternia. We have all been transformed into what you saw. I was not always a butterfly, Feferi was not always a mermaid, Karkat, Nepeta, and everyone else you see were not always the way they are now."

"John, Jade, Dave? What happened to them?"

"They too are now acts or parts of acts in the Tree of Haints."

"Can you let me see them? All of them?"

"Darling, I know where the twins are, but you cannot see your brother at the moment. If you would like me too, I can take you to see the ones you call John and Jade. You may not want to though ..."

"Take me! Please! I need to see them, this is all my fault. If it wasn't for me voting that we should go, we wouldn't have come in the first place! Please, you have to let me see them. I need to apologize."

"Very well, but you cannot say I did not warn you."

Kanaya glanced around the clearing; no sight of the master or the ringleader. They would be safe for a quick glance at the new performers. A grey-white hand took Rose's, and led her off to a more secluded corner of the grounds. A thin yellow tent sheet was stretched over what looked like cages, from the bars protruding from the bottom. Low moaning was heard from both of the steel boxes, as well as a fair amount of fluttering and whimpering.

"This is where we are forced to keep the entertainers that haven't been … broken in yet."

With a few more steps, Rose and Kanaya were in front of the cages, and Kanaya peeled back the canvas material. A strong scent of blood hit both her and Rose, flooding their enhanced senses and piquing Rose's hunger. But with one look at the child in the cage, her hunger was forgotten.

John leaned against one side of the bars, his glasses missing and hair matted with blood. One eye was the same brilliant blue that he had always had, but the other was an exotic green that belonged to Jade; a set of stitches around the green-eye socket confirmed that it had been transplanted into the boy, and Rose could only guess where his other eye was. The now too familiar red LED light blinked from under his chin. From his back sprouted a pair of slightly damaged white feather wings, beating weakly against the prisoning bars; a trapped angel. As he caught sight of Rose in his good eye, he pulled himself towards the front of the cage, calling hoarsely out to her. "Rose, help us please."

"Please, Rose!" was a call from Jade, from the cage right beside John. Kanaya pulled back the yellow sheet to reveal the girl in much the same state as her brother, with one aquamarine eye where an acidic green one should lay. Her hair was dried thick in clumps, especially where a pair of curling bone horns protruded from her scalp, and half-tangled around her neck, where another red light blinked. A devilish tail flicked listlessly, extending out from where her tailbone was.

The almost twins were shackled too each other, arm to arm and leg to leg, connected by heavy chains spread between the boxes. They now sported almost identical sets of swirling tattoos extending from the replaced eyes down the sides of their faces, their necks, and most of their arms, from what Rose could see. John's were a bright green and Jade's were a deep blue, matching each other's text colours exactly. The inklings seemed to center around a windy-looking swirl on John's right temple and the same from a set of circular swirls around Jade's left. Their clothes had also been changed; Jade now was dressed in a black sparkly leotard with an attached lime green tutu, John in a black toga-style cloth drape, with ornate clasps the colour of ocean. Sitting hunched up on the floor for however long they had been, it was obvious how they had been unable to move; sores from lack of movement on their legs and arms were smelly and oozed pus and blood. Tears washed at the red stains on their faces, coming only from their good eyes as they wailed and groaned in pain.

Once they both dragged themselves to the front of the cages, spots of blood remained on the floor where they had sat curled up. Rose fell to her knees and clasped one of their hands each, reaching through the bars to comfort them as best she could. The sister of the pair tried to push closer to the newly-created vampire, but was stopped by the chain hooked around the bars further back. "Rose, please get us out of here."

Clear streams flowed openly down Rose's cheeks, and she made no move to stop them.

"What have they done to you?"

"It was terrible. They hurt us a lot, and they called me an 'angel' so many times," John sniffled. "They kept calling Jade 'demoness'. They kept saying it over and over again, even when they touched us and did horrible things to us." Another sniffle and more tears.

"I'm supposed to be the demoness, and he's my angel brother. That's what our act's going to be."

"How am I supposed to be an angel, Rose?"

"They fuckin' raped us and beat us and you have to help us get out! We never should have come in the first place, and now we're going to die if we stay like this much longer!"

Rose tried to hug them, but couldn't quite reach them both, and settled for grabbing their arms securely in a way she hoped would be reassuring. "Can you tell me, who is 'they'?"

"The m-master, and the ringleader, too."

"Master touched us, and the twins just whipped us and beat us and burned us if we tried to struggle."

"Rose, it was too terrible, we have to get away!"

Kanaya appeared over Rose's shoulder, and both the caged angel and demon shied away, trying to get away from the troll. "I am sorry to inform you of this, but you can't leave. You both are now two more of us."

Rose babbled out what she hoped would sound like an apology, tears running down her face and dripping into the dirt.

"Darlings, I'm very sorry to say this, but welcome to the Tree of Haints Freak Show."

* * *

Years later, the mystery of four lost teens had been closed. The trail was cold, and had never held any clues except for a few foot prints in the woods. Tales faded, soon to be nothing more than wild local legends. The parents moved away, each trying to escape the area where their son or daughter had disappeared without a trace.

Many, many years passed. Eventually, no one remembered the kids' names.

Then, no one recalled how four teens had gone missing under the May full moon.

Sometime in the middle of April, a balmy spring wind turned cold and blew a paper from the woods into the path of a group. The small group of four teens stumbled upon the grey sheet, picked it up, and read it over.

The Tree of Haints Freak Show had come back to town.


End file.
